This computer program is represented in a markup language, using for example the syntax of the markup language XML (“eXtended Markup Language”).
The importance of communication networks in the use of computers is continuously growing such that, increasingly, the computer programs themselves, in order to operate, need to be connected to other computers via a communication network.
Thus it is not rare for a computer program to be shared over a communication network, using the functions and processing capacities of each server of the communication network optimally.
Hence the execution of such a program on a local computer, without connection to the communication network, can no longer be carried out, or else only in a degraded mode.
It is thus becoming increasingly important to be able to have access to the functions provided by the different programs stored on the different servers of a communication network.
Several techniques currently exist for accessing and using remote computer programs.
A first technique known as RPC (“Remote Procedure Call”), enables a local program to send a request for execution of a function to a remote program which executes the function and returns the requested result.
Nevertheless, this RPC technique has a certain number of drawbacks. Firstly, it requires the definition of the function to be remotely executed to be precisely known in advance. Moreover, it requires the programmer to considerably modify the code of his program in order to for it to be able to access remote functions. Finally, the programmer must process differently local function invocations and remote function invocations.
A second technique also exists consisting of downloading a function on demand.
This technique consists of downloading a first part of a program from a remote server, then, progressively as the execution of this program invokes functions contained in other parts of the program, downloading these other parts from a remote server.
This technique is implemented by virtue of the programming language Java®, used by certain Web browsers.
Although simple to use, this technique requires that the entirety of the program to execute be initially stored on the remote server, which prevents the use of distributed models in which the program is divided into several subprograms shared between different computers of the communication network.
Furthermore, this technique does not enable the downloading from a plurality of computers of the network of the different sub-programs making up a program.
In parallel with this technique of processing a program shared over a communication network, the “hyperlinks” technique also exists. This technique enables a so-called “hypertext” document to refer to documents stored on remote servers.
According to its principle, these hypertext links consist of framing a word or phrase of an electronic document by a tag containing the address of the electronic document corresponding to the word or the phrase of the document dealt with.
In practice, these words or phrases thus framed by a tag are displayed on-screen in a particular color such that the user can click on one of them. The current document is then replaced on-screen by the document referred to by virtue of a program of browser type enabling the document associated with that tag to be searched for on the communication network.